This invention relates to barbecues in which the grill grid or fuel bowl is rotatable.
In U.S. application Ser. No. 570,553 filed Apr. 22, 1975, abandoned, by the present Applicant there is described a stand supporting a body member arranged to contain a bed of burning fuel, a rotatable horizontal grid mounted above the fuel bed and a motor connected to the grid to rotate the grid continuously. The purpose of this rotation is to avoid uneven cooking.
It is desirable to provide such a barbecue which is portable and easily dismantled, for example for easy packing in the boot of a car, and which may be operated by a relatively small electric motor which can run on small batteries.
A simple method of connecting the motor to the grid is to support the motor below the bowl and connect the motor to the grid by means of a rotatable shaft which passes upwardly through an orifice in the bowl. This arrangement avoids the need for members such as flexible drive shafts above the grid which may constitute an obstruction in use.
It is possible to support the thrust bearing of the rotatable shaft rigidly on the body of the barbecue, but such a rigid connection has the disadvantage that the precise aligning of the thrust bearing with the body of the barbecue and the motor is difficult during assembly for use and the members supporting the shaft and motor have to be manufactured accurately. If the alignment is not perfect, either the shaft tends to jam so that it does not rotate or a larger motor is required to feed increased power to the shaft. At the same time the wear of the rotating parts and the supporting bearings increase, considerable shortening the life of the unit.